1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to playback apparatuses and playback methods for sound content data provided via various recording media, such as compact discs (CDs), mini disc (MDs) (registered trademark)), digital versatile discs (DVDs), hard disks, and semiconductor memory cards, or networks, such as the Internet.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to the recent widespread use of portable silicon audio players and hard disk music players, several hundreds to several tens of thousands of music pieces (music content) can be recorded and played back on and from a recording medium installed in a playback apparatus. This allows a user to carry a portable player to play back and listen to his/her favorite music pieces at any time from the recording medium.
Many music pieces can be recorded and played back on and from a recording medium, and the user can enjoy music for a long time. The user can also listen to music in an unexpected playback order by performing a so-called “shuffle playback operation” by playing back music by randomly changing the playback order, which does not bore the user. In known audio players, however, prerecorded music pieces are merely played back, and although the number of music pieces increases, the same sound of the individual music pieces is played back.
The latest trend in the music business shows that many remix albums produced by arranging existing music pieces have been released. It is not unusual that disk jockeys (DJs) produce new music pieces by using existing music pieces. Additionally, software and hardware for synthesizing sound by adjusting the pitch or tempo of sampled sound as desired are available for music professionals, semiprofessionals, and general users (music lovers).
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-044046 discloses an information processing apparatus and method for interactively editing or playing back music pieces by combining a plurality of sound materials in accordance with the input from a user by using a keyboard or a mouse. By using the technique disclosed in this publication, sound materials can be relatively easily processed.